The New Whitney Museum in New York

It is unfortunate that the new Whitney Museum’s exterior comes across as so mundane. While a museum by definition must focus most of its energy on the exhibition spaces, how it is seen in its environment is also critical.

Having worked in the office of Marcel Breuer at the start of his work on the uptown Whitney more than 50 years ago, I know that the design thinking that went into the selection of the exterior granite and the cantilever entry on Madison Avenue was seen as just as important as the interior exhibition spaces.

Renzo Piano and his team clearly put most all of their energy into the inside of the new building, and the neighborhood loses out.

PETER SAMTON

New York

The writer is an architect.

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